Edward Stone Parker
| Edward Stone Parker | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Assistant Protector of Aborigines of Port Phillip | |
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In office 3 Jan 1839 – 31 Dec 1849 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 May 1802 London England, UK |
| Died | 27 April 1846 (aged 43) Franklinford, Shire of Hepburn, Victoria |
| Spouse(s) |
(1) 1826, Mary Cook née Woolmer d.1842 (2) 1843, Annie née Edwards |
(1) 1826, Mary Cook née Woolmer d.1842
Edward Stone Parker (1802–1865) was a Methodist preacher and assistant Protector of Aborigines in the Aboriginal Protectorate established in the Port Phillip District of colonial New South Wales under George Augustus Robinson in 1838. He established and administered the Franklinford Aboriginal Protectorate Station in the territory of the Dja Dja Wurrung people from January 1841 to the end of 1848.
Parker was born on 17 May 1802 in London to Edward Stone Parker, a printer and his wife Mary. He became an apprenticed printer and a Sunday school teacher in the Methodist Church and was a candidate for the ministry. He married Mary Cook Woolmer in 1828, thus breaking probationary conditions for the ministry leading him to teaching in a Methodist day school in Greater Queen Street, London.
The Colonial Office in England appointed him as assistant Protector of Aborigines, and he and his wife and six sons sailed for Sydney. He arrived in Melbourne in January 1839. Robinson appointed Parker to the northwest or Loddon District in March, but he did not start his protectorate until September 1839. The Protector's duties included to safeguard aborigines from "encroachments on their property, and from acts of cruelty, of oppression or injustice" and a longer term goal of "civilising" the natives.
Parker initially established his base at Jackson's Creek near Sunbury, which was not close enough to the aboriginal nations of his protectorate. Parker suggested to Robinson and to Governor Gipps that protectorate stations be established within each district to concentrate aboriginals in one area and provide for their needs and so reduce frontier conflict. The Governor of NSW, Sir George Gipps, agreed and stations or reserves for each protector were approved in 1840. Parker's original choice for a reserve in September 1840 was a site, known as Neereman by the Dja Dja Wurrung, on Bet Bet Creek a tributary of the Loddon River. However, the site proved unsuitable for agriculture and in January 1841 Parker selected another site on the northern side of Mount Franklin on Jim Crow Creek with permanent spring water. This became known as the Loddon Aboriginal Protectorate Station at Franklinford, and was known to the Dja Dja Wurrung as Lalgambook.
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